Geographic Differences in the Relative Price of Healthy Foods

A balanced and healthful diet consists of a variety of foods.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans indicate that within broad
food groups, such as dairy, meat, or grains, there are more
healthful options (those that maximize nutrients and minimize added
fats or sugars) and less healthful ones. Although healthy foods can
be affordable, if less healthy foods are cheaper, individuals may
have an economic incentive to consume a less healthful diet. Using
a unique price database, we explore whether healthy foods generally
cost more than less healthy options and whether the price
differences between healthy and less healthy foods vary across the
country.

• Some healthy foods were more expensive than less healthy
foods, but in other cases, healthier options were less
expensive.

- Whole grains were more expensive than refined grains across
the United States, with prices ranging from 23 percent higher (San
Francisco) to more than 60 percent higher (nonmetro Pennsylvania
and New York) than for refined grains.

- Fresh and frozen dark green vegetables were more expensive than
starchy vegetables in all markets (prices ranging from 20 to 80
percent higher than starchy vegetables), but orange vegetables
(e.g., carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash) were less
expensive than starchy vegetables in some markets, including metro
New York, San Francisco, and Florida.

- Low-fat milk (skim and 1%) was between 10 and 20 percent less
expensive than whole and 2% milk in most markets.

- Low-fat milk was more expensive than nonalcoholic carbonated
beverages in some markets, but less expensive in others.

- Bottled water is the same price or less expensive than soda in
all but one market (urban New York), with a price ranging from 6
percent (Boston) to over 33 percent (San Francisco) lower than the
price for soda.

- The geographic variation in the price of whole fruit when
compared with sweet or savory commercially prepared snacks is
generally smaller than that of other comparisons. On a per-gram
basis, whole fruit is 60-70 percent less expensive in all
markets.

- The price of low-fat milk, as compared with the price of
carbonated soda, decreased nearly 12 percentage points, on
average.

How Was the Study Conducted?

Using prices from the Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database, we
compared prices per 100 grams of packaged whole-grain products with
their refined-grain counterparts; dark green vegetables with
starchy vegetables, orange vegetables with starchy vegetables,
whole fruit with commercially prepared sweet snacks, low-fat milk
with whole and 2% milk, low-fat milk with carbonated nonalcoholic
beverages, bottled water with carbonated nonalcoholic beverages,
and fruit juice with noncarbonated nonalcoholic caloric beverages
(fruit drinks). We calculated market level relative prices of the
healthy food groups and their less healthy counterparts for 2006,
as well as the quarterly and annual average relative prices within
nine census divisions between 1998 and 2006.